Spisulosine 285 is a bioactive compound that has been found to possess specific antitumor activity, described in the International Patent WO 99/52521. In the same patent specification are also described sphingoid-type bases spisulosines 299 and 313 and some sphingosine analogs.
                1 (spisulosine-285) n=14        2 (spisulosine-299) n=15        3 (spisulosine-313) n=16        
                sphingosine, n=12 and nonadeca-4-sphingenine, n=13; and        

Spisulosines 285, 299 and 313 were isolated from Spisula polynyma, an edible clam originally isolated from samples found off the coast of Japan. The compound we call spisulosine 285 and the syn diastereoisomer were first synthetized by Croatian researchers in the determination of absolute configurations of lipid bases with two or more asymmetric carbon atoms (Prostenik, M.; Alaupovic, P. Croat. Chem. Acta. 1957, 29, 393).